Band Of Outsiders / Pre-Fall 2014

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The ’80s. Those are the years Band of Outsiders’ designer Scott Sternberg, a child of the era, “can never really escape,” he admitted this morning while showing his latest collection. But he does it so well[ital] (his version being preppy-cool, not costumey), and if the decade provides endless inspiration for him, it’s all the better for us. For pre-fall, he looked to Whit Stillman’s 1998 film, The Last Days of Disco, which is set in the early ’80s. “There’s just something about it. They look so good in that movie. I just want to be in that kitchen with those girls,” Sternberg said this morning at his New York showroom, pointing to a still from the film of Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale pinned to his mood board. In the image, Sevigny is wearing a colorful, striped sequined tube top, which Sternberg has translated into a very pretty foil-print tulle on a one-shouldered evening dress.

Also in the collection: Barn jackets in plaid wool and denim with faux-fur trimmed hoods, experimentations in suiting (see little menswear-inspired jackets with pleat-front, cinched-hem jodhpur-like trousers), and jumpsuits—a white one with a black V-neck is perfect for evening and a horse-shoe embroidered version makes another reference to equestrianism, a theme deeply rooted in what the designer calls “the lexicon of prep.” The windowpane prints go there, too.

“With the coats,” Sternberg said, “we’re trying to make winter a fantasy, not something you dread.” Not an easy task on this cold-to-the-bone, rainy December day. But his clever whimsy and humor brighten things up for sure. One funny T-shirt has a picture of a DeLorean going through its stripes. Another has a horse doing the same, because “at one point I was thinking city girl/country girl, cars/horses.” The pieces show that even though it’s mostly a season for back to school and back to work, as Sternberg says, there’s plenty there for the Band girl to play in, too—even if she’s not doing it at a disco.